Imperial Austrian Exhibition

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The Imperial Austrian Exhibition took place from June 20 to October 6, 1906 in Earls Court in London and served to advertise tourism and products from the Cisleithan part of Austria-Hungary .

The exhibition

Before the construction of the multi-purpose hall Earls Court Exhibition Center in 1937, the Earls Court Exhibition Ground with hall, free arena, Ferris wheel , gardens and pavilions, which was used for exhibitions and fair events, was located there since 1887 .

Originally the exhibition was supposed to be called Austria in London , but was renamed at the request of the government of the Habsburg Monarchy , which co-financed the expensive event. The exhibition was organized by London Exhibitions Limited , whose managing director was Hungarian- born Imre Kiralfy . This exhibition is said to have been the most financially successful ever to be held at Earls Court .

In the Empress Theater is a Tyrolean village was lace-makers and wood carvers built and a typical Viennese square with pubs and cafes. A garden restaurant in the village offered Austrian specialties; it was run by a restaurateur from Marienbad named Spitzer together with his son-in-law Maxime Lurion , a formerly successful cyclist. There was also a bohemian part of the exhibition, for which Count František Lützow was responsible. Among other things, an Austrian male choir performed during the exhibition. A bronze plaque designed by Josef Heu reminds of the appearance . Robert Fix , general director of the company Portois & Fix , which manufactured art furniture, was awarded the Cross of Merit in 1907 for his services to the exhibition in Austria .

The exhibition itself presented products from Austrian and Bohemian companies and artists, such as the Kalmar company , which made bronze furnishings , as well as works by the photographer Josef Jindřich Šechtl . The artists' associations Wiener Werkstätte , Hagenbund and Wiener Secession showed their works as representatives of the urban , at that time highly modern, orientation in art and design as could be found in Vienna . The architects and designers Josef Hoffmann and Marcel Kammerer exhibited their then futuristic furniture and Jan Kotěra an interior design. The more rural side of Austria was represented, among other things, with the giant circular painting from Innsbruck by Michael Zeno Diemer , which shows the Battle of Bergisel on August 13, 1809 on around 1000 square meters and in 360 degrees and was specially transported to London.

A special public attraction was an artificial salt mine, in which the visitors - like the workers - slid down a passage on a sledge. An elevator was used to “drive up”, but its operation was based on an optical illusion: the elevator stood still while images of artificial stones moved on the walls. The Ministry of Railways contributed a train ride that passed photos of Austria.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 19th Century on myearlscourt.com
  2. ↑ onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
  3. ↑ Antique bronze plaque signed Josef Heu Imperial Austrian Exhibition London 1906 on worthpoint.com
  4. ↑ Portois & Fix at voglhofer.at
  5. ↑ kalmarlighting.com ( Flash ; 1.2 MB)
  6. ^ A b Felix Driver, David Gilbert: Imperial Cities . Manchester University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-7190-5413-3 , p. 79 and 89.
  7. ↑ Josef Hoffmann on artfact.com
  8. ↑ Jan Kotera on architektenlexikon.at
  9. ↑ Giant circular painting 'The Battle of Bergisel from August 13, 1809' by Michael Zeno Diemer on insmuseum.com
  10. ↑ Sliding Down the Salt Mine . In: The Poverty Bay Herald . Volume XXXIII, Issue 10721 . Gisborne June 19, 1906, p. 4 (English, online ).